


Drawn to You

by nitro147



Category: Graffiti Kingdom
Genre: M/M, tabpix
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-02
Updated: 2017-07-01
Packaged: 2018-11-22 06:04:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,196
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11374095
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nitro147/pseuds/nitro147
Summary: Three years after defeating Medium, Pixel finds himself in a world where humans and demons live together in peace. However, that peace is soon shattered when Medium finds a new way to bring the demons to power. Pixel finds himself having to fight for humanity once again, all while learning to accept his feelings for Tablet and unraveling the story of the first Graffiti War.





	Drawn to You

_“Well, I_ am _a demon.”_

Pixel wasn’t sure when it had happened, but at some point, that phrase had gone from being an excuse to being something of an inside joke between friends.

He wasn’t sure when they had gone from being rivals to being friends either. But here they were, lying on a hill in the Canvas Plains, their bodies outstretched in opposite directions and their heads next to each other. His companion was Tablet, the former prince of the demons. Overhead, cotton ball clouds drifted through the sky, each one having a unique shape that the two boys had spent all afternoon identifying. In a different world and a different time, it would have been strange – taboo even – for a human and a demon to be friends. But this is how the world was now, how it had been for… How long?

_Three years_ , thought Pixel. It had been three years since Pixel had accidentally released the ruler of the demons, Medium, from the seal that had imprisoned him for centuries. Throughout Pixel’s journey to undo his mistake (or get out of undoing his mistake, as it were), Tablet was there, being a general nuisance and a total creep.

_When exactly did I start being friends with this weirdo?_

It had to have been after Pixel defeated Medium, since that’s when everything started to change. Demons started to integrate into human society not long after Pixel’s victory, an idea that was not well received by every human. Eventually humans learned to see demons less as a threat and more as inhabitants of the town. The only demon who hadn’t learned to cope with the change was, not surprisingly, Medium. His continuous efforts to reestablish the demon kingdom lessened over time as Pixel time and again foiled the Devil’s plans.

Tablet’s face suddenly filled Pixel’s vision. “Are you even paying attention to me?” Tablet asked. “That is so rude, I thought we were friends.”

Pixel couldn’t help but snicker a bit. “Sorry. Guess I had my head up in the clouds.”

Tablet laid on his stomach and propped his head up with his hands. “I did not think that last cloud looked like you.”

Pixel laughed even more, which earned him a bit of a stern look from Tablet. “No, I didn’t mean it like that. I just meant… I was thinking about something.”

“Oh, I see. What were you thinking about?” Tablet asked.

Pixel sat up and spun around to face his friend. “I was thinking of when we became friends.” Pixel gathered up a handful of grass and started letting the blades go one by one.

“Hmm, as I seem to recall, we became friends shortly before my sister killed me,” Tablet said.

Pixel winced a bit. “Okay, first of all, your sister didn’t really kill you.”

“A mere deception on my part,” Tablet said with a tiny shrug. “We demons accept deception as the way things are.”

Pixel clenched his fist, crushing the grass that remained in his hand. Even though Tablet hadn’t truly been killed by Palette, the memory stung Pixel deep down. It wasn’t even the deception that bothered him; he could forgive that. Watching Tablet fade away was hard, though. Harder than it should have been. Now that they were closer, it only hurt more to think about it, and that bothered Pixel in ways that he would never admit.

“And second of all,” Pixel said, “that was just you demanding to be my friend.” Before Tablet could protest, Pixel added, “What I’m talking about is… When did things to get to be like _this_?”

“Does it really matter?” Tablet asked. He smiled warmly at Pixel, his hair swaying in the warm breeze.

Pixel’s stomach was instantly filled with the sensation of butterflies. “Eh, I guess not,” he said. But it did matter because what he was feeling now was… _Disgusting_. This was the crux of Pixel’s problem: he wasn’t sure when, but at some point, somehow, someway, he had gone from feeling friendship for Tablet to feeling…

Pixel abruptly stood up and said, “Come on, let’s go back to the castle. If we don’t, Pastel will probably have an even bigger lecture in store for me than her usual.”

Tablet nodded and stood up as well. “Very well,” Tablet said, smoothing out the long scarf that he wore. “We would not want to deprive Pastel of her favorite activity, would we?”

 

And, of course, Pastel had a lecture ready for Pixel as he strode into his room.

“Pixel, you’re the prince of the kingdom! You can’t keep skipping school like this!” Pastel said.

Even though she balanced out her fun moments with plenty of moments where she seemed determined to be as annoying as possible, Pastel was Pixel’s best friend. It was Pastel that introduced Pixel to the world of graffiti. It was Pastel who cheered (and sometimes berated) Pixel toward victory during his journey to free the kingdom from the clutches of Medium. And it was Pastel who Pixel always turned to when he needed counsel. She was three years his elder (give or take a millennium, Pixel guessed) and a skilled graffitician. Her skill with a graffiti wand was matched only by her skill at nagging.

Pixel waved his hand as he walked past Pastel. “Ah, come on Pastel, it’s not that big of a deal!” Muttering under his breath, Pixel added, “Not like I care about what that teacher has to say anyway.”

“It is a big deal though. What are you going to do when it’s time to ascend to the throne and you don’t know the first thing about making a law? Or the history of your kingdom?”

“Pastel, that’s so far away, it won’t matter for a while.”

Pastel started to say something more, but Pixel tuned it out and flopped unceremoniously onto his bed. These lectures were more of a routine for the two friends than anything else. Though at one time they had been conducted with earnest concern, like everything else, somewhere along the way it had changed. Pastel knew that Pixel would stop listening at some point and Pixel knew that Pastel would finish what she wanted to say eventually and give up, which she would punctuate with a sigh.

Sure enough, after her tirade was over, Pastel exhaled sharply. “Where were you anyway?”

“Hanging out with Tablet.”

“Again?” Pastel was silent for a moment. “It seems like you two spend a lot of time together these days.”

“He’s fun to hang out with.”

“I didn’t think you liked him that much.”

Pixel felt his stomach twist into knots. _Disgusting_ , Pixel thought, the word echoing in his mind, each reverberation becoming louder. “What’s that supposed to mean?” The words tumbled out of his mouth with more venom than he had expected them to have, catching both Pixel and Pastel off-guard.

Pastel blinked a bit. “N-nothing, nothing at all. I just thought… you thought he was weird.”

“He _is_ weird. He is such a weirdo, but he’s also my friend.” Pixel thought for a moment of opening up, telling Pastel that he wanted Tablet to be so much more, but his stomach twisted tighter and he abandoned that idea. “Besides, hanging out with him is more fun that whatever boring lesson I’ve got to sit through.”

Pastel sighed. “Your job as the prince of this realm is important. People are going to look to you for leadership and protection. I’ll admit you have the protection thing down pretty well, but…”

“Pastel, you make it sound like it’s the hardest thing in the world. It can’t be that bad! All my parents do is sit there all day, and it’s not like they even care about where I am or what I’m doing.”

Pixel had a point there. His parents were lenient — perhaps too lenient — with their son. They were calm people in general, but when it came to Pixel their patience seemed to be limitless. Their expectations of him couldn’t have seemed more nonexistent. Maybe they were partly to blame for Pixel’s laziness, but at the same time Pastel at least hoped that Pixel would show some initiative on his own. Even during Medium’s take over three years ago, when circumstances were dire, Pixel had proven to be a difficult person to motivate. At the end of the day, Pixel was a boy who did things by his own schedule, and if your item wasn’t on his agenda for the day, he wasn’t going to get to it.

While Pastel sat quietly and wondered how to get the crown prince to have more interest in actually being the prince, Pixel had turned his attention elsewhere. He idly waved his graffiti wand through the air, drawing out random patterns and shapes. As soon as they would materialize, he would dematerialize them just as quickly, only to start over on something new.

Pastel huffed when she saw this. “Pixel, the graffiti wand is an important tool! It’s not for doodling!” This comment earned no reaction from Pixel. “Maybe you and I should start training more.”

Pixel sat up, and the shape he had been drawing suddenly materialized and dropped beside him onto the bed. “Training?! What for?”

“Well, if you’re going to be a graffitician, you might as well hone your skills.”

Pixel scratched his head. “I don’t know if you’ve noticed, Pastel, but my skills have been more than enough to keep Medium in check.”

“But, but… there’s so much more to being a graffitician! It’s not just drawing things and using them to fight, you know!”

Pixel shrugged. “But it’s all I’ve ever needed. Why bother with learning something new when I’m not going to need to use it?”

Pastel shook her head; her patience had reached its limit. “Forget about it. I’m not going to try to keep wasting my time like this.” She turned on her heel and left the room, slamming the door shut behind her.

_Stupid Pixel_ , she thought. She normally didn’t react like this to Pixel’s indifference, but the fact that he was getting so close to Tablet had set her on edge. She knew she couldn’t tell him about everything that had happened in the past, but she also felt like she was betraying him by leaving him in the dark. As uncomfortable as the war had been, she knew that one day all the details would spill out, and her friend would learn the truth about everything that had happened. How exactly would he react when he learned about where she had failed, when he learned about what Tablet had done? Her thoughts were interrupted when a familiar voice called to her.

“Hello, Pastel.”

_Speak of the devil_ , Pastel thought. Or at least speak of his son.

His arms were folded and he was leaning against the wall. “Are you finished lecturing the prince?”

“No, I- wait, what do you mean lecturing? Ugh, is that what he calls it?”

Tablet laughed. “He calls it many things. If you are done with him though, I think I may go see him myself.”

“Look, Tablet. Just… promise you’ll be careful with him.”

“Hmm? What do you mean?”

Pastel rubbed her arm a bit. “I don’t want to see him getting hurt. Not like… you know…”

Tablet’s eyes narrowed. “Like _who_ , Pastel?”

Her lips moved as she tried to say a name, but the sound was lodged in her throat. Despite this, Tablet knew exactly what she had said.

“This is _nothing_ like that! Why do you insist on keeping the past alive when it’s over with?”

“Over with? Pixel has been dealing with the aftermath of what your father did for three years now! Maybe you two are friends now, but how long is that going to last? How long before you betray him to help the demons?”

Tablet’s voice was usually level no matter what was going on, but now he found himself getting louder. “Do not accuse me of betrayal! I was doing what I needed to do. Everyone knew whose side I was on!”

Tears started to drop down Pastel’s face. She hated remembering the past and she hated discussing it even more. Their heated debate had attracted the attention of several guards who looked ready to pounce on Tablet, but Pastel had no intention of letting things get that far. “He thought he knew whose side you were on, but I guess he was wrong,” she said in a low voice. “Don’t ever do that to Pixel. If you do, I will make sure that you are completely erased from this world.” She took off running down the hall, not even looking to see Tablet’s reaction.

Tablet grumbled and, after shooting a glare at the watching guards, made his way for the castle exit.

 

Night had fallen on the kingdom and almost everyone was getting ready for sleep. Deep in the tunnels beneath the village, however, Medium paced about restlessly. In one of his hands he clutched an old book, its cover too faded to be read. The paper was tattered and yellow, and the paint used for the illustrations was chipping. He thumbed through the pages, sometimes turning them too hard and tearing them even more.

“The answer has to be here!” he said.

The book was one of the oldest books in the castle library and detailed the events of the original Graffiti War. He had pilfered the book, which earned the wrath of several guards, but the information in this book was well worth the price. Or so he had hoped. Unsatisfied with the contents of the page he was currently on, he roared out in frustration and slammed the book against the tunnel wall. A few pages scattered, and what remained bound to the spine was laying open on the dirt.

“Every time I try something, I’m always stopped by that _boy_. Look at me, the great Devil, reduced to this! And it seems to me like my servants don’t even care, like they’re actually _happy_ to live among the humans! Even my dear, sweet Palette is eating out of their hands…”

And then there was his son. Tablet’s betrayal still aroused an anger in him that was almost matched by his hatred for Pixel. Part of him couldn’t help but be proud, in a way. After all, it was in the nature of demons to deceive, and Tablet’s deception had proven to be a fine piece of work, even going so far as to fool the boy. He learned after the fact that the two had fought, and that Pixel had soundly defeated Tablet. Instead of the whole affair ending with bitterness over the deceit though, they shared a moment laughing together, and that’s what Medium hated the most. His own son, the would-be heir to the demon realm, befriending a human, the very human who was responsible for preventing the rise of the demons.

_Ah, but you shouldn’t be surprised_ , Medium thought. _After all, it’s just like… Well, no. The first time, things were different._

Having calmed down a bit, Medium went over to the book and stooped down to pick it up. He lifted it up to see what page it had landed on, and immediately the meticulously painted images on it caught his eye. They depicted events that were very familiar to him. In fact, he knew this scene by heart; he had, after all, seen it with his own eyes. It was when humans pleaded with the gods for a way to defeat Medium and his demons as they razed the lands. After countless bloody battles that often ended with humans as the clear losers, humanity turned to the gods as a last resort. The gods answered their plea by bestowing several humans with the power of graffiti.

Suddenly, an idea formed in Medium’s mind. “Yes. Yes! That’s it! It’s perfect!” Medium bellowed out in laughter. “Why didn’t I think of that before?”

It seemed so obvious. A way to conquer humanity once and for all, without the interference of that detestable boy or any other so-called graffiticians. All he needed would be one thing.

“Yes, yes, this will work. As long as I can get there fast enough, even the boy won’t be able to stop me.” Medium tore the page out of the book and slinked off into the darkness, eager to set his plan into motion.

 

Pixel yawned as he pulled back the sheets to his bed.

A familiar voice called from his room’s balcony. “Going to bed so soon?”

Pixel jumped and spun around to meet the source of the voice. “Tablet! Ugh, how many times have I told you about coming up here like that?”

“If I surprised you, I am sorry. That was not my intention.” Tablet smiled.

Pixel’s stomach was overtaken by the sensation of butterflies again. “Yeah, well, stop doing that. What are you doing up here anyway?”

“I wanted to know if we’d be hanging out tomorrow.”

Pixel raised an eyebrow. “You came all the way up here, at this time, just to ask me that?” He crossed the room to where Tablet was standing.

Tablet chuckled a little. “Well, maybe I wanted to see you again.”

Pixel swallowed hard and looked into Tablet’s eyes. He wanted so badly to move closer to Tablet, to throw his arms around him. The space between them simultaneously felt too large and too small and Pixel felt torn between his desires to either close the distance or increase it. If he was too forward, he’d lose Tablet, and if he was too cold, he’d also lose Tablet. His mind screamed at him that it was wrong to be attracted to Tablet, but his heart screamed back just at hard that he wanted to be close to Tablet.

“Aren’t you going to tell me I’m weird?” Tablet asked, finally breaking the silence between them.

Pixel blinked a bit and took a step back. “Sorry. Uh, yeah, we’ll hang out tomorrow. Want to meet at the usual place?”

Tablet nodded. “But of course. I hope you sleep well, Pixel.”

Pixel took a few steps back into his room and took a hold of the balcony door. Tablet’s words warmed Pixel deep inside, though he made every effort to hide that. “Yeah, thanks.” He started to shut the door, but stopped himself. “Oh, and Tablet?”

“Yes, Pixel?”

“Stop being so weird.”

Tablet beamed and said, “Never.” With that, he back flipped off the balcony and down to a rooftop below, where he’d surely continue his overly acrobatic route out of town.

Pixel shut the door, trying his hardest to ignore the fluttering in his chest and the protests in his mind. It had been months since he had started feeling like this and to his dismay nothing had changed. If anything, the feelings had intensified.

_Why couldn’t I have been attracted to Pastel instead_ , Pixel wondered as he climbed into bed and pulled the covers up around him.

_Then again, what’s so wrong with liking Tablet?_ Pixel laughed a bit at the obvious answer.

“Well, he _is_ a demon.”


End file.
